One of da Vinci’s historic strengths has been its service, the best I’ve received from any company, ever. There was someone available 24 hours. The other big one is that everything you need to do creatively, they’ve been at the forefront of developing the kinds of creative tools for colorists that have helped us evolve as artists, helping us be more flexible for the kinds of things we can do.

On top of that, everything was in real time. They have so much hardware behind their software that any effect you want to do, no matter how many layers, it was in real time.

RON ANDERSON AT THE CONTROLS OF THE DA VINCI:

While Ron has started to play more with Apple Color, and is blown away that he can work in 4K at home, he continues to work with da Vinci systems in his “day job," where they use the da Vinci for all film projects, including 4:4:4 dual link transfers for DI. "We found some software called Virtual VTR, normally used for Foley work," he said. "We interfaced the Da Vinci 2K with that, in order to be able to color correct from a RAID array."

As we’re working with more files, like the ones from the RED Camera, we’re doing more with the digital file system called Resolve. There has been quite a premium placed on that kind of real-time performance, so it will be very interesting to see how Blackmagic’s approach will fit in with that.

He is especially hopeful to see better integrate with Final Cut Pro. I’ve been banging on them for years for this, and they’ve always replied, Nah, we’re not working on that. My first hope will be to bring in FCP projects via XML to Resolve. Eventually, I’d like to see something more elegant, but this has been a real shortcoming so far. I hope that Blackmagic will be able to energize this.

WALTER BISCARDI AND RON ANDERSON IN THE STUDIO:

Da Vinci has always had their ears open, and customers have been very active in helping design the gear. It has been very exciting to see all of this come into life. I haven’t seen anything like it from other companies, but I certainly have very expectations for Blackmagic, and how the two companies can make some interesting things happen.

While we all wait for the specifics to emerge, there is no doubt that things will be very interesting indeed, for a very long time ahead of us.

Sounds like it may be good news for consumers down the road, despite Grants pessimism about a low cost DaVinci for us common folk. My pal here is designing a TV facility right now, so I will pass this on to him, as they are looking at Videohub and all the rest.

The fastest breaking news that is sure to rifle through IBC the quickest? Well, for starters, try this announcement from Blackmagic Design, who have acquired DaVinci Systems, the pioneering color system that for many years has been one of the dream systems in the marketplace. In the letter to employees below, Grant Petty discusses the acquisition with his team members.

In this article, Tim Wilson begins his series on the big news already beginning to leak from IBC 2009. Blackmagic Design has acquired da Vinci Systems and yes, you read that right. BMD owns and will be developing and marketing da Vinci's award-winning colorgrading technology. What's in store? Here's Part One of Tim's look at the fast-breaking news...

In this article, Tim Wilson continues his series with his Part Two look at the big news leaking from IBC 2009. Blackmagic Design has acquired da Vinci Systems and with that acquisition comes what Tim refers to as The Power of da Vinci. And for the many that have used da Vinci over the years, they know full well the power of which Tim writes. And for those who might need an introduction to this power, Tim offers these words...

Marco Solorio of OneRiver Media gives an introductory overview to the rebirth of the Fairlight digital audio workstation (DAW) that is now part of Blackmagic Design’s powerful DaVinci Resolve post-production system. Is this finally the solution to break away from the Pro Tools stronghold?

It's Day Three of Walter Biscardi's REAL WORLD editing on DaVinci Resolve 12.5 and this is going to be the longest blog yet as I want to show you guys a lot of the "little things" that are making editing in Resolve a pleasure. I know there are a lot of questions still out there whether this is really a professional editor. For me it's the small things that separate the applications making life efficient and fun for the the editor.

Blackmagic Design recently took the wraps off DaVinci Resolve 12.5. Walter Biscardi has been predicting for over a year that Blackmagic would answer many of the questions plaguing editors, and that this would be the year this tool became a full fledged non-linear editing system -- sure enough, it's now a solid editing platform.

Somebody asked Walter Biscardi, "why does editing in Resolve interest you?" Well, he states, it is my color grading tool of choice. It's completely free, and by the way, I'm cutting this project using the free version of Resolve. My Studio version sits on another machine. And having all of that extra real estate on the second monitor is a huge bonus.

Director Ridley Scott's latest epic 'Exodus: Gods and Kings' takes a gritty approach to a biblical story, and colorist Stephen Nakamura helped expand the realistic look by working closely with Scott and DP Dariusz Wolski ASC, and by grading the film in DaVinci Resolve 11 using new tools to help push the 3D grade while preserving highlights.

Colorist Joseph Owens has been in the heart of postproduction for over 30 years, and has used one form or another of DaVinci Resolve for a large part of that. In his look at the latest release of what he calls the gold standard for color correction, he both covers new features, and considers the possibilities that those features offer.

Sometimes it might seem that colorists are all about stylized treatments and extreme color correction, but Aidan Stanford's work on season five of Modern Family is all about maintaining realism and hiding all the tricks in the background. Making the jump from film color timing into digital hasn't been easy, but Aidan has found a way to utilize his film skills in the digital world, turning around episodes in a day using his favorite tools in DaVinci Resolve.